Giovanni daVerrazano

Background Information

• Birth: 1481• Death: 1528• Birthplace: Tuscany, Italy• Well educated.• Employed in the maritime

service of France• Lived in Lyons, France as a

child.• He was an Italian explorer

who sailed for France.

Search for the Northwest Passage• Set sail in January 1524 with a fleet of four

ships.• Funded by Francis I, king of France, and

Lyons merchants.• Primary goal was to find a northwest

passage to China and the Far East.• Lasted six months.• He failed to discover the northwest

passage. Instead he made his first landing on American shores.

• Verrazano sailed west from France to Cape Fear, North Carolina.

• While exploring the coastline he found Pamlico Sound.

• Travelling further north he discovered New York Harbour, Block Island, and Narragansett Bay.

• He sailed even further north to Maine and Newfoundland before returning to France.

1524 Voyage Route

• Set sail in June 1526 and returned in September 1527.• Sponsored by King Francis the First and Phillipe Chabot, who was an

admiral of France.• Plan to further explore westward in search of a route to the Spice

Islands (Indonesia and Malaysia).• During the voyage his men mutinied and ordered him to return to

France.• Verrazano sailed to Brazil instead and loaded up the ship with a red

dye wood named brazilwood.

The Brazil voyage

• Set sail late April or early May 1528.• His goal was to explore and harvest more brazilwood.• His ship La Flamengue first landed along the coast of

Florida, and then sailed south, to Abaco and the Bahamas. Then southward to the northern coast of South America. From there the ship traveled west to the coast of Darien.

• He went ashore with six men to one of the islands (possibly Guadeloupe), where he was killed by unfriendly natives.

Verrazano’s Last Voyage

• King Francis I, was hesitant to sponsor Verrazano because of the war against Spain.

• On his first voyage in 1524, a tremendous gale delayed Verrazano’s departure.

• A storm then sank two of the four ships with the loss of 200 Frenchmen.

• Only two of his ships, Le Dauphine ( his flagship) and the Normande, made it back to port.

• King Francis I, recalled the Normande to fight against the Spanish.

• Verrazano was left with the smallest vessel.• During the Brazil voyage the crew mutinied.

Hardships Faced

• One other voyage before his 1524 expedition was the Thomas Aubert expedition to Newfoundland in 1508. This provided a basis for his continued interest in exploration of the Americas.

• He kept a log book with details of his daily sun observations and longitude and latitude positions.

• As a corsair, Verrazano intercepted a shipment of treasure worth over $2 million on its way to Spain.

• Verrazano was killed and eaten by cannibalistic Carib natives in front of his brother.

Other notable occurrences

• First European to sight New York and Narragansett bays.• Recorded details of the landscape along the coast of Florida

to Newfoundland (dunes, forests, hills, coastlines, etc.)• His discoveries altered the construction and details of maps

used by explorers who came after him.• In 1529, Gerolamo Verrazano, the brother of the late

Giovanni, produced his famous world map, based on the explorations and discoveries of the voyages.

• New York Harbor's Verrazano Narrows Bridge commemorates his epic voyages.

Historical Contributions

• Verrazano had a compass, lead line, astrolabe, cross staff, quadrant, traverse board, and tide calculator to available help with navigation.

Navigational Tools Used

QuizWhat is the birth place of Verrazano?A. Lyons, ItalyB. Florence, ItalyC. Tuscany, Italy

Where is the Verrazano Narrows bridge?A. New YorkB. Rhode IslandC. Conneticut

What type of wood did Verrazano bring back from his second voyage?A. GumwoodB. BrazilwoodC. Brazilian Nut Tree wood

What was the name of Verrazano’s brother?A. GierolameoB. GerolamoC. Geriolemo

What is the name of the flagship in Verrazano’s first voyage?A. La DauphinB. La DauphinaC. La Dauphine

What is the birth place of Verrazano?C. Tuscany, ItalyWhere is the Verrazano Narrows bridge?A. New YorkWhat type of wood did he bring back from his second voyage?

B. BrazilwoodWhat was the name of Verrazano’s brother?B. GerolamoWhat is the name of the flagship in Verrazano’s first voyage?

C. La Dauphine

Books• Maestro, B & Maestro, G 1994, Exploration and conquest, Lee &

Shepard Books, New York City, New York.• Sansevere-Dreher, D 1992, Explorers who got lost, Tom Doherty

Associates, New York City, New York.

Websites• Engels, A , viewed 7 April 2010,

<www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/verrazzano.html>. • Museum Planet, viewed 26 April 2010,

<http://www.museumplanet.com/tour.php/nyc/bp/16>. • Mariner's Museum, viewed 26 April 2010,

<http://ww2.mariner.org/exploration/index.php?type=explorersection&id=70>.

Encyclopaedia• Delpar, Helen. "Verrazzano, Giovanni da." World Book Student.

World Book, 2010. Web. 29 April 2010.

Bibliography

FIN!